Blanchard Dam is a dam across the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 near the city of Royalton

Royalton, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 816 people, 322 households, and 209 families residing in the city. The population density was 473.7 people per square mile . There were 328 housing units at an average density of 190.4 per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 98.77% White, 0.25%...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Blanchard is a hydroelectric station owned and operated by Minnesota Power. The dam sits slightly upriver from the former Soo Line

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad

The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwest U.S. Commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault, it was merged with several other major CP subsidiaries on January 1, 1961 to form the...

rail bridge over the Mississippi. The bridge now carries a recreational trail.

Blanchard Dam is the tallest dam on the Mississippi River at 47 feet of water head. The upper St. Anthony Falls is second at 44 feet of water head. However, its claim to be a tall dam is severely discounted by the fact that it is not really a dam, just the impounding of water around a naturally occurring waterfall. The third highest dam is in Keokuk, Iowa, with 42 feet. The Mississippi River Museum at Davenport, Iowa states that Keokuk is the tallest, but they ignore the entire headwaters region (above Minneapolis) because it's not navigable.

Because of the design of Blanchard Dam, it provides the most accurate water flow statistics of the Mississippi in central Minnesota. Daily, monthly, yearly, and statistical data in cfs (cubic feet per second) since 1924 are available at the USGS website (insert link).

Blanchard Dam is also one of only 3 known places on earth that the rock Staurolite can be found.